During Advent-Christmas 2015 and the first couple of weeks of 2016, I visited two United Methodist Churches, one ELCA Lutheran Church, and one Presbyterian Church for worship. Each church used a projector and screen for the entire worship service. The visuals mostly included words for prayers, hymns/songs, and scripture lessons. The congregations seemed engaged with these words. One church added youth ministry activity announcements with recorded music and interesting visuals just prior to the start of worship. Another church used a visual "anchor" which was a photographic image of the worship bulletin cover. This image was projected throughout the worship as a symbolic connection to the worship theme.
While it is good to see visual technology in use, that use was primarily to show words on the screen. Adding more visuals to the worship service, even to show the main sermon points in 3-4 pictures or diagrams, would increase the visual interest and begin to harness the fuller potential of the linkage between computer, screen, and projector.
I was surprised and pleased to see these congregations comfortable with the use of the screen and projector, and was impressed with how they have integrated these nicely into their architecture and liturgy. There are plenty of creative options available to them if they want to increase visual interest by showing more imagery/art to make worship themes and messages vivid and memorable.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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| Published January, 2015 |
The book shows preachers and congregational leaders how to bring more visual arts into worship, not only through the use of projected imagery, but through developing awareness of the architecture of the holy space in which they gather.
On January 30 I am leading a workshop at the 2015 Earl Lectures and Conference Series at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, "Preaching With Your Sanctuary Architecture."
Monday, November 25, 2013
Promoting Media Worship In a Newsletter Article
Pastor Bill Teng of the Heritage Presbyterian Church of Alexandria, Virginia wrote a fine newsletter article last February reporting his worship committee’s interest in developing five worship experiences using multimedia.
His newsletter introduction to the topic is a fine example of how to explain a worship “experiment” to a congregation. I’m glad he used Silver Screen, Sacred Story for guidance and inspiration!
You can find his article here.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Steadfast Love
Sunday's lectionary readings included a familiar verse from Psalm 107:1, God's "steadfast love endures forever." How do you communicate the meaning of "steadfast love" in a children's message? I thought it'd be a good idea to find three pictures that might represent "steadfast love" and then put them into a PowerPoint to project on the screen during the message.
My three thoughts: 1)a mother goose at a nest of eggs 2) a bird tending to its injured mate and 3) a grandparent with a grandchild. I went to Google images and searched for each of these, and quickly found appropriate pictures. I uploaded them into a PowerPoint, and had a three-slide children's message all set up.
On Sunday morning I had the children gather in the first pew so they could see the pictures, as could the congregation. I noted the "steadfast love" passage in the Psalm, and then showed the pictures one at a time to ask if they showed "steadfast love" and why. The answers were obvious and the children knew it. I added a few more sentences of how these examples are like God's steadfast love for us, and the message was complete.
The next day, one of our active worship attenders commented on how effective the children's message was, and how meaningful----and memorable---it was to her.
Three simple pictures, showing a complex concept, accomplished quickly. This is the power of visuals in worship, linked to a biblical message, tastefully presented, and memorable!
My three thoughts: 1)a mother goose at a nest of eggs 2) a bird tending to its injured mate and 3) a grandparent with a grandchild. I went to Google images and searched for each of these, and quickly found appropriate pictures. I uploaded them into a PowerPoint, and had a three-slide children's message all set up.
On Sunday morning I had the children gather in the first pew so they could see the pictures, as could the congregation. I noted the "steadfast love" passage in the Psalm, and then showed the pictures one at a time to ask if they showed "steadfast love" and why. The answers were obvious and the children knew it. I added a few more sentences of how these examples are like God's steadfast love for us, and the message was complete.
The next day, one of our active worship attenders commented on how effective the children's message was, and how meaningful----and memorable---it was to her.
Three simple pictures, showing a complex concept, accomplished quickly. This is the power of visuals in worship, linked to a biblical message, tastefully presented, and memorable!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Using Flat Screens in the Sanctuary
Recently I visited the Cocoa Beach (FL) Community Church (UCC) and was treated to their use of five flat-screen monitors. Two monitors were in the front of the sanctuary, another two were towards the middle of the sanctuary, and a fifth monitor was above the rafters in the front facing towards the choir/liturgist/preacher.
You can see how the flat screens and their imagery blend right in with the stained glass windows at the front of the sanctuary.
The screens were used for posting church announcements, as well as for the congregational prayers, scripture readings, and lyrics to songs and hymns.
One member told me that their equipment wasn't working one week, and members of this predominantly older/retired congregation expressed concern and missed the use of the screens.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Summer Course Offered in Berkeley
This summer I'll be offering a week-long (five mornings) course titled, "Visual Arts in Worship: Taking It To The Next Level" at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.
Dates and Times: One week: August 1-5, 9:00am-1:00pm.
Description: Many congregations are already using, or considering the use of a screen in worship. The challenges are many: how to make it even more interesting, where to find good resources, how to preach effectively with visual material, how to find affordable equipment, how to prioritize your time, and how to evaluate whether “to screen or not to screen.” This course will cover those issues and focus on how to find and present more visuals--art, photographs, video, and movie clips--to add interest and depth to worship and preaching themes in ways that are appropriate for any congregation. Class sessions will include participants sharing their own congregation’s experience with media, practicing new skills together, and using educational theory and theological reflection to examine the why, what, who, when, how and how much of multimedia/multimodal worship.
For more information, go directly to the course information listed by the seminary at:
http://www.psr.edu/summer-session-2011-courses#august1
Dates and Times: One week: August 1-5, 9:00am-1:00pm.
Description: Many congregations are already using, or considering the use of a screen in worship. The challenges are many: how to make it even more interesting, where to find good resources, how to preach effectively with visual material, how to find affordable equipment, how to prioritize your time, and how to evaluate whether “to screen or not to screen.” This course will cover those issues and focus on how to find and present more visuals--art, photographs, video, and movie clips--to add interest and depth to worship and preaching themes in ways that are appropriate for any congregation. Class sessions will include participants sharing their own congregation’s experience with media, practicing new skills together, and using educational theory and theological reflection to examine the why, what, who, when, how and how much of multimedia/multimodal worship.
For more information, go directly to the course information listed by the seminary at:
http://www.psr.edu/summer-session-2011-courses#august1
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Court Upholds YouTube's Model
Using YouTube video clips in teaching and preaching has been easy and legal for several years. The world is available to the teacher and preacher in short clips with great visuals and excellent audio.
For the past several years I have contended that YouTube, and its owner, Google, provide content for us to use, and that they have been taking responsibility for the legal (copyright) matters. Viacom tested the model with a lawsuit against Google some 3-4 years ago, and until it was settled by the court, my view was that we could legally use the material Google/YouTube presented.
Today a judgment was rendered in favor of YouTube:
"U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York sided with Google Wednesday as he rebuffed Viacom's attempt to collect more than $1 billion in damages for YouTube's alleged copyright infringement during its first two years of existence.
The 30-page opinion embraces Google's interpretation of a 12-year-old law that shields Internet services from claims of copyright infringement as long as they promptly remove illegal content when notified of a violation." (source: Associated Press report as reported here.
This ruling provides us with a continuous source of legally-obtained video material, placing the copyright-verification onus upon YouTube and Google. It is indeed a victory for participatory sharing along guidelines set by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and the Fair Use Guidelines For Educational Multimedia.
For the past several years I have contended that YouTube, and its owner, Google, provide content for us to use, and that they have been taking responsibility for the legal (copyright) matters. Viacom tested the model with a lawsuit against Google some 3-4 years ago, and until it was settled by the court, my view was that we could legally use the material Google/YouTube presented.
Today a judgment was rendered in favor of YouTube:
"U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York sided with Google Wednesday as he rebuffed Viacom's attempt to collect more than $1 billion in damages for YouTube's alleged copyright infringement during its first two years of existence.
The 30-page opinion embraces Google's interpretation of a 12-year-old law that shields Internet services from claims of copyright infringement as long as they promptly remove illegal content when notified of a violation." (source: Associated Press report as reported here.
This ruling provides us with a continuous source of legally-obtained video material, placing the copyright-verification onus upon YouTube and Google. It is indeed a victory for participatory sharing along guidelines set by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and the Fair Use Guidelines For Educational Multimedia.
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